Fabriano

Fabriano is a town in the province of Ancona, in the Marche region, set in the hilly upper valley of the Giano and Esino rivers on the eastern edge of the Apennines. It is known worldwide for paper: a hydraulic paper mill was already operating here by the 1260s, and Fabriano's papermakers are credited with inventing the watermark in the late 13th century. By the 1300s the town was producing over a million sheets of paper a year, and it continues to manufacture paper — including currency paper — today. In 2013 UNESCO named Fabriano a Creative City in the Crafts and Folk Arts category for this long unbroken papermaking tradition. The historic centre preserves a compact medieval layout, and the Museo della Carta e della Filigrana (Paper and Watermark Museum), housed in a former Dominican monastery, is the town's best-known visitor attraction.

Fabriano has its own station on the Rome–Ancona railway, which crosses the Apennines between Orte/Rome on the Tyrrhenian side and Falconara Marittima/Ancona on the Adriatic side, via Foligno and Terni. By road, the town sits on the SS76 dual carriageway linking Ancona/the A14 Adriatic motorway with Perugia and Umbria.

The historic centre is compact and walkable from the station area.

The Museo della Carta e della Filigrana (Paper and Watermark Museum), housed in a former Dominican monastery, is Fabriano's principal sight, tracing the town's papermaking history back to the 13th-century invention of the watermark. The medieval historic centre itself, built around this same paper industry, is worth a walking visit.